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"The Limits of Independence" explains how freedom of action is limited by both a tightening net of interdependence between countries and by the rules which the "international society of states" has put in place. After setting out the general framework of restraint imposed on states, Adam Watson details attempts to limit national sovereignties from Napoleon to the European Union, including along the way discussions of how the many ex-colonial states have found their independence limited by their inability to provide strategic security or economic well-being.